Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). A beauty temple of Barcelona, which is the main creation of Antoni Gaudi. The towers of the Sagrada Familia are well visible from afar: they tower above the many houses of the city. The famous architect dedicated to creating fantastic interiors and facades of the church for decades, but his construction is still not finished.

1882 construction of Sagrada Família commenced under architect Francisco Paula de Villar until 1883, when Gaudí became involved when Francisco resigned as the head architect. The Sagrada Familia is one of the most famous long-term buildings in the world; At present, the completion of work is planned by 2026. But the Spaniards are not in a hurry, because there is a top legend that when the construction of the temple is over, the end of the world will come.

Taking over the project, Gaudí transformed it with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. The building was purchased by the church for charitable donations from the townspeople. At that time the territory was still beyond the city limits of Barcelona. Originally designed and supervised by the project architect Francisco de Villar, who was going to build a church in the Neo-Gothic style. But ten years have not passed since he refused this work because of disagreements with the church authorities who acted as the customer.

The Basilica of the Sagrada Família was the inspiration of a bookseller, Josep Maria Bocabella, founder of Asociación Espiritual de Devotos de San José (Spiritual Association of Devotees of St. Joseph). Meanwhile, construction was just beginning, and Antonio Gaudi was invited to work on the temple, which at that time already received the fame of an extraordinary and talented architect. Sagrada Familia became the main business of the architect’s life, which he dedicated to the cathedral for more than 40 years.

On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked: My client is not in a hurry. When Gaudí died in 1926, the basilica was between 15 and 25 percent complete. After Gaudí’s death, work continued under the direction of Domènec Sugrañes i Gras until interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Gaudi considered Gothic and Neo-Gothic to be non-viable and outdated directions, so he used only their basic components. In addition, the architect introduced elements of Baroque, Art Nouveau and Moorish style, adding to them a fair amount of their own designs. The ingenious architect was a pious man, he was going to embody the whole New Testament in stone. It is known that Gaudi did not like to think out every detail in advance, creating separate sketches in the course of construction. The endless change of ideas sometimes led to the fact that the builders had to suspend the work or even dismantle and redo the individual parts of the building at the request of the architect.